Sam Allardyce knows his team can strike out for the top two places in the npower Championship with victory against Ipswich Town this evening.
The manager has admitted he may well rotate his squad, with Papa Bouba Diop in contention for the matchday 16, while Jack Collison could return to the selection as well. David Bentley, Sam Baldock and John Carew are ahead in the queue to break into the eleven. Big Sam admitted that Ipswich would pose a tough test and is relishing the prospect of a first home league game under the lights as the club aim to continue their best start to a league season in 28 years.
Have you seen Ipswich at all recently?
SA: I watched the TV game against Coventry. Paul Jewell is getting his team together there and like ourselves has got a lot of experienced players that have played in the Premier League that are now finding their feet and beginning to put some good results together.
It will be a tough game like every game is in this league.
What sort of game are you expecting?
SA: I think pretty much like Saturday. Paul Jewell has a lot of Premier League experience in the team like I have. He has got Keith Andrews, who I had at Blackburn, and is an excellent player and has scored some real good goals for them.
He has got Jimmy Bullard, Michael Chopra - quite a few players with Premier League experience in there. They play a similar way to Peterborough so again it will be about nullifying their strengths and exposing their weaknesses. We have to make sure we take more of our chances though.
Matty Taylor came off near the end on Saturday. With two games in four days there is a physical element to consider. Is there a temptation to mix things up a bit?
SA: I think so. It is nice to have a winning side and that doesn't cause you too many problems from a selection of point of view. We have only changed it slightly Abdoulaye Faye and Winston Reid played on Saturday even though James Tomkins is fit. Abdoulaye had played that well at Millwall we kept him in against Peterborough. We have only been tinkering with that.
The subs have had chances. Papa [Bouba Diop] is ready now and Sam Baldock keeps staring at me saying 'when are you going to put me on?'. I have got to get round to looking at the squad and looking at Ipswich. Even though we have won on Saturday and are undefeated in seven matches, Is it the right thing to change one or two of the personnel.
It is a difficult thing to change when you are winning games of football but it is one I have got to have a serious look at and see if I can make the team that bit better by making a change. I will be sticking my neck on the line because i am sure if I get it wrong the fans will let me know!
Home form will be key to promotion bid. An evening game in the league can be a special occasion. How important is it to have a full house and plenty of noise?
SA: If they make it better than Saturday that will be great because that was fantastic. Sometimes they show their disappointment and rightly so if they are not being entertained like they want to see. For me the atmosphere is going to get better and better. I can't wait to feel the atmosphere on Tuesday and I hope we can deliver them a performance.
You now have four clean sheets out of eight. That will be important for your promotion aims, won't it?
SA: We have already scored four goals in three games this season and only played eight so we know the goals are there. Clean sheets are extremely important to any side that anyone wants to win anything. The teams that win things always have the most clean sheets.
It is a cliché but there is no easy game in the Championship is there?
SA: In this league everyone competes and gives everything they have got. You have to earn the right to play and earn the right to win. We are are well aware of that and I hope we will give a better performance than we did on Saturday. That will hopefully lead to another victory as it is a big week for us. If we can nick six points from six, we will go to Palace on Saturday in full confidence and try to keep our magnificent away results going.